See How Don’t Be Prey Sweeps the U.S. Festival Circuit
Don't Be Prey Sweeps the U.S. Festival Circuit
Jeff W. Tseng's open-water swimming documentary is collecting honors on its U.S. festival run, with its Southern California premiere set for the Newport Beach Film Festival on October 17.
An Australian documentary about one man's decade-long swim through seven of the world's most dangerous ocean channels is making waves of its own in the United States. Don't Be Prey, the feature directorial debut of filmmaker Jeff W. Tseng, is sweeping up awards on the U.S. festival circuit. The film won The Best Human Spirit Award at the Breckenridge Film Festival, where it made its North American premiere, and was named Best International Feature Documentary at the Richmond International Film Festival.
The film arrived in the U.S. after closing the 2026 Gold Coast Film Festival in Australia. Following its wins in Breckenridge and Richmond, it screens at the Chagrin Documentary Film Festival on October 7 before its Southern California premiere at the Newport Beach Film Festival on October 17, followed by the Dana Point Film Festival on October 31.
The U.S. reception follows strong international reviews. The Brighton Journal gave the film five stars, calling it “mesmerizing, humbling and deeply moving” and “one of the most compelling documentaries about the human spirit you are likely to see this year.” The Guardian called it “an invigorating documentary about open-water swimming,” and Brenton Ford of Effortless Swimming said, “It's the best swimming film I've ever watched.” Additional festival engagements are expected to be announced.
Don't Be Prey follows Australian swimmer Mark Sowerby as he takes on the Oceans Seven, often described as the open-water equivalent of climbing the Seven Summits. The challenge spans five continents and seven channel crossings: the North Channel, the Cook Strait, the Molokaʻi Channel, the English Channel, the Catalina Channel, the Tsugaru Strait and the Strait of Gibraltar. The longest, the Molokaʻi Channel between Molokaʻi and Oʻahu, runs 45 kilometers (28 miles). Swimmers cross with no cage and no wetsuit.
Sowerby did not come to the sport looking for glory. In 2018, a highly publicized short-selling attack on Blue Sky dismantled his reputation and his sense of self. He turned to the ocean as a way to survive prolonged uncertainty, spending a decade confronting cold, darkness and apex predators, from the icy Irish Sea to the shark-patrolled waters of Hawaii.
He is not alone in the water. Coach Tim Denyer, a former channel swimmer who watched his own mentor die during a crossing, brings an uncompromising, safety-first discipline. His rule for survival gives the film its title: keep your stroke rate steady, don't splash too much, keep your heart rate down. Don't be prey.
Sowerby's wife, Heidi, gives the film its emotional center. She moves from anxious observer to indispensable strategist, becoming the one voice that can reach her husband at his lowest point, and eventually enters the freezing water herself to guide him home. Steven Munatones, who created the Oceans Seven, frames the quest as a primal dialogue between “human power and Mother Nature.” Outdoor Swimmer Magazine's Simon Griffiths summed it up: “This is a love story. Not a boy-meets-girl Hollywood romance, but of real-life enduring love.”
Tseng says he worked deliberately to keep Sowerby from becoming a conventional hero. “Don't Be Prey is not concerned with the outcome of success, but with how a person learns to live with themselves amid prolonged uncertainty,” he said. “His transformation is not about becoming stronger, but about shifting from control to trust, trust in the process, trust in others, and trust in uncertainty itself.”
The director also chose not to hide his subject's flaws. Sowerby's need for control, emotional distance and near-obsessive drive are central to the story, Tseng explains, because they are the barriers he has to confront. What the film offers instead, in his words, is “a different understanding of courage in the face of adversity: not the courage to conquer, but the courage to stay; not the absence of fear, but the refusal to let fear make one's decisions.”
Tseng is co-founder of the Brisbane production company PixelFrame, and his earlier producing work has screened at Slamdance, the Vancouver International Film Festival and Flickerfest. He co-wrote the film with editor Steven Sander, an Emmy winner for ESPN's 30 for 30 documentary Of Miracles and Men and editor of The Thinking Game, which premiered at the 2024 Tribeca Festival. Caitlin Johnston and Cassie Johnston produced, and Lucas Thyer executive produced. Don't Be Prey is presented by Artisia Films and was made with the support of Screen Australia.
Don't Be Prey screens Saturday, October 17, 2026, at 7:00 PM at Regal Edwards Big Newport, Screen 1 (300 Newport Center Drive, Newport Beach), with a red carpet from 6:00 to 7:00 PM. Tseng, Mark Sowerby, Tim Denyer, Heidi Sowerby and Steven Munatones will attend.
“Newport Beach, with the ocean as its backdrop, is the perfect place to share Mark's story with audiences,” Tseng said.
The Newport Beach Film Festival runs October 15 through 22 at venues across the city, including Fashion Island's THE LOT and Regal Edwards Big Newport. Tickets and film details are available on the festival's website. After Newport Beach, the film continues to the Dana Point Film Festival on October 31.
Don't Be Prey runs 91 minutes. More information, the trailer and stills are at dontbeprey.film.
